Cold. It was the first sensation that flooded into his mind as consciousness returned. Before he could even open his eyes, a shiver ran through Hunter's entire body. His eyelids seemed to weigh a ton, but he finally managed to get them open.
He sat up carefully and blinked at the murky darkness. Thankfully, the aftereffects of the gas weren't much more than a slight dizziness. Shapes slowly started to come into focus as he surveyed his surroundings. Those shapes turned out to be stone walls, and with a start Hunter realized that he was slumped on the dirt floor of a roughly circular room about twenty feet in diameter. Actually it couldn't really be called a room, as the domed stone ceiling seemed to be at least forty feet above him, whereas the rock walls that surrounded him were only about twenty-five feet high – leaving a wide gap between the top of the walls and the ceiling. It seemed more like a large cubicle of some kind to Hunter.
Bare light bulbs were hanging from the ceiling from exposed cables, but the little bit of illumination they provided didn't help much.
A few feet off to his right, a huge steel door was set into the wall. Hunter squinted his eyes for a better look; it seemed to be of the sliding kind, and he could see no handles or opening mechanisms of any type.
So much for getting out that way. Hunter let his eyes roam around the area some more, but there wasn't anything in the room with him. And neither was anybody.
Shane! Hunter was on his feet before he even realized it. His eyes once again darted in all directions, but the Wind ninja wasn't here.
Dozens of questions were assaulting Hunter's mind, but he settled on trying to answer the most pressing one first, namely Shane's whereabouts. Feeling slightly silly, but unable to think of anything else to do, the older Bradley stood in the middle of the small room, took a deep breath and yelled out the name of his team mate at the top of his voice.
On the other side of one of the stone walls, in a cubicle identical to Hunter's, a black-haired head snapped up. Shane shot to his feet. "Hunter!" he called back, relief flooding though him. Ever since he had come to a few minutes ago, he had been trying to contact Hunter as well, both via morpher and by simply calling out to him, but with no luck. The morpher didn't seem to be working at all; that worried him.
"Yeah!" came the reply from the other side of the wall, sounding equally glad. "Are you okay, man?"
"I'm all right. Got knocked out by some sort of gas. You?"
"In one piece." Hunter scowled. "They used the gas on me, too. Any idea where we are?"
Shane shook his head, but of course Hunter couldn't see that. "No, but everything in here feels real enough, so we're not in one of his illusions or alternate universes."
They both knew who Shane was referring to.
"Where exactly are you?" asked Hunter's voice.
In reply, Shane picked up a small rock and hurled it over the stone wall from which he guessed Hunter's voice was coming. It turned out to be the right guess.
"Ok, gotcha," the Thunder ninja called. Both young men turned towards the wall that separated them.
"You see any way to get over this?" Hunter wanted to know, for he had already deduced from the fact that if Shane was still in the cubicle next to his, the Red Ranger hadn't been able to find a way out yet, either.
Shane's voice sounded frustrated. "No, this wall's pretty smooth."
Hunter's eyes traveled up and down the barrier. "Same over here, but keep looking. We need to get together…"
Suddenly, out of the periphery of his vision, he saw a flash of light a few feet away from him. He whirled around – and found himself face to face with Lothor himself.
The evil space ninja grinned at him from behind his mask. "So, traitorous Thunder Ranger, we meet again." He took a step forward and sneered, "Long time no see."
Hunter immediately assumed attack stance. "I could go for much longer," he growled, trying to calm his racing heart. He drew back his fist, ready for a punch.
"Oh, please," Lothor sighed exaggeratedly and flicked his wrist. From his leather glove surged a mighty power beam that lifted Hunter off his feet and flung him backwards a few yards. With a yelp he landed spread-eagled in the dirt and Lothor was looming over him immediately. "And that was just a tap."
"What do you want? Why are we here?" Hunter growled as he sat up, a hand clutched to his burning chest. "And where are we?"
Lothor held up his hand. "One question at a time," he remarked, condescension dripping from his voice. Then he turned, waving his hands in a circular motion. "You should be flattered at what I have created here just for you. Your very own arena."
The evil ninja turned his gaze back towards Hunter. "Actually, I really wanted to get both you and your brother, but for now the other one will do just fine." He inclined his head towards the stone wall where Shane was stuck on the other side.
Hunter's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb," Lothor snapped. "I still have a bone to pick with you and your brother for defecting and joining up with THEM!"
Hunter held his gaze without flinching. "Joining THEM was the best thing we've ever done," he snarled up into the evil ninja's masked face.
Lothor barked a humorless laugh. "When you see what I have in store for you, I'm sure that this attitude of yours will change quickly." He looked down onto the blond man. "After my newest creation is finished with you, your brother will be next."
Hunter still had no idea what Lothor was talking about, but at those words fear shot through his chest, although not for himself. He scrambled to his feet. "If you lay a finger on Blake…"
But Lothor had already turned and extended his hand. Another flash of light appeared next to him; a teleportation portal. "Farewell. I'll be watching your demise from my ship," he hissed with an evil smile. And before Hunter could reach him, he was gone.
Hunter stood in the middle of the room, fists clenched at his sides, trying to control his breathing – and his fear for Blake – when the voice from the other side of the wall finally registered.
"Hunter!"
"Yeah."
"Was that who I think it was?"
"Sure was. Did you hear everything?"
"Just about. What do you think he meant by 'having in store for you'?"
Hunter looked towards the huge steel door. "I don't know, but I have a feeling I'll find out real soon."
As if on cue, a metallic groan came from the direction of the door and the huge steel rectangle shook and started to move.
Shane…
On the other side of the wall, Shane was getting more and more tense. Lothor was clearly up to no good and this could turn extremely dangerous very soon. His fingers ran over the smooth wall with renewed vigor. He had to get to Hunter somehow. Whatever Lothor was planning to throw at him, they needed to face it together. Strength in numbers.
Their earlier hostility was forgotten in light of the impending danger from Lothor.
Suddenly there was a metallic noise from the other side, and a moment later Shane heard a blood-curling, utterly inhuman growl that made the hair stand up at the back of his neck. His head shot up and his blood ran cold.
"HUNTER!"
First Encounter…
Hunter vaguely heard his name being called, but he was too busy staring in open-mouthed horror at what had just emerged from the open door.
The beast looked like the result of a mating between the monster Luke Skywalker had fought in the dungeon of Jabba the Hutt's palace and the creature from "Aliens".
It was at least three times Hunter's size and looked infinite times more vicious and evil.
Malignancy seemed to radiate from it, filling the air of the arena, and Hunter instinctively knew that this was not one of Lothor's normal, goofy monsters; this was a predator, conscienceless and deadly.
The monster took a few steps forward, and the steel door swished shut behind it with a clank. Despite the murky lighting Hunter got a good enough look at it to make his stomach turn to a clump of ice.
The best comparison that came into Hunter's mind was 'butt-ugly, miniature T-Rex'.
Its dark complexion was glistening, as if coated with a slimy oil, and the overhead lights reflected off its razor-sharp spikes, talons and fangs in dozens of places. Its tail, equally studded with spikes, flicked left and right as the beast raised its head and let out another monstrous roar that instantly dried up Hunter mouth.
With the roar came a fetid stench bad enough to make him gag; it was a mixture of sulphur, sewage, and evil. The beast lashed out aimlessly with its long, powerful arms, striking the wall next to it. The entire stone structure shook precariously, and Hunter's eyes went wide at the display of force behind that seemingly casual swipe. The massive head moved from side to side, searching, but for now the shadows of the murky darkness of the arena helped to conceal Hunter's position.
'Hand-to-hand combat wouldn't even tickle that thing,' the Thunder ninja thought as his head whipped around, desperately searching for a weapon of any kind; a rock, a jagged piece of stone, anything, but there was nothing in the arena with him.
'Lothor made sure of that,' he thought grimly and took a few steps backwards until he bumped into the rock wall. Nowhere else to go, nowhere to hide.
"High time to morph," he mumbled to himself and stuck out his hand.
"Thunder Storm, Ranger Form!"
Nothing happened. Hunter stared at his morpher unbelievingly. Oh no, don't, not right now! He repeated the call – with the same results. What the heck?
Another growl made him look up from his dead morpher to see that the creature's head had turned, its beady red eyes now focused straight on him. The only thing his attempt to morph had achieved was that the monster was now aware of his exact location.
'I'm in so much trouble,' was the only thing that came into his mind. He pressed himself closer to the wall in a futile effort to fuse with it.
He was backed into a corner with a non-functioning morpher, no weapons of any kind and no place to run.
"Shane!" he yelled on top of his lungs. "I could really use some help over here!"
Then the dino-monster charged.
Hunter leapt into the air, did a forward flip, and avoided the monster's talons by a hairbreadth. He landed behind the creature, only to duck immediately as the spiked tail crashed into the wall inches above his head. A shower of dust and debris rained down on him. He threw himself forward once again, evading another swipe from those monstrous claws. The creature let out a frustrated screech, and Hunter's chest constricted at that sound. He couldn't avoid the beast indefinitely; the arena was just too small for that.
And the monster knew that as it geared up for another charge.
The wall…
The moment Shane heard the distressed call from the other side of the wall, he had to fight down the panic creeping up in his gut. He doubled his desperate efforts to scale the wall, clawing at the smooth stone, but there simply weren't enough hand or footholds for leverage. Dismayed, he looked up, knowing that even he couldn't make a twenty-five foot leap. He tried it anyways - and fell about ten feet short.
"Fly," he thought. "Only way across." That meant the Battelizer.
Shane stepped away from the wall and extended his arm. "Ninja Storm, Ranger Form!"
The morpher never even twitched.
"Oh god, no!" he moaned, panic surging through him with full force. He had been hoping that the earlier problems with his morpher would turn out to be only a glitch in communications. Now he knew it was much worse. Cursing under his breath, he tried again and was rewarded with the same results. Damnit, but the thing didn't look broken!
Whatever was attacking Hunter on the opposite side of the wall shrieked again, and the beastly noise was like a dagger in Shane's heart. "Hunter, can you morph?" he yelled.
"NO!" came the desperate reply, and despite the damp cold of the place, Shane started to sweat. He closed his eyes, breathing. "Think.THINK!" he urged himself, raking his hands through his hair. A sudden spur of anger made him kick the wall – and left him feeling stupid almost immediately afterwards. He glared at the hated stone structure.
"If I could only blow a hole into you," he mumbled, and suddenly his eyes went wide.
Maybe not blow through it, but…Again his eyes went upwards, this time to judge whether this crazy idea that just came into his head would have even a tiny chance of success. He came to the conclusion that it had to work; there was simply no other alternative.
Shane breathed, calming his body, clearing his mind. Inhale… exhale…When his heartbeat had slowed, he put his right fist into his open left palm and concentrated. His mind expanded, focused, summoning his element, and his element responded. He felt the familiar mental connection, then a rush as the power of air surged through him and manifested itself around him. The wind was beginning to tug at his clothes and hair, but Shane kept his eyes closed as he increased the power of the gust, then changed its direction until he stood right in the middle of a powerful up-current. By now the noise of the wind had turned into a howl, and slowly, Shane's body was pulled upwards. He felt the loss of contact with the ground, but did not crack open his eyes, entirely absorbed in the task of controlling his element. Ascending was a slow process, but at least he was going in the right direction. A quiet feeling of triumph went through him as he gained altitude. He had tried this several times before during training in the woods, but had never made it farther than a few feet up before the force of the whirlwind once again managed to unbalance him. The result had always been a face full of dirt and aching ribs as he came crashing down.
Now he kept his body rigid, desperately trying to balance out the powerful winds spinning all around him by keeping himself in the eye of the vortex. For the moment it worked, and he rose steadily, inching towards the top of the wall.
Next attack…
Whoosh! Hunter could feel the air rush by his ear as he dodged the beast's claws again.
Too close. There was no way he could keep this up much longer. The creature was closing in on him, clearly agitated now, and Hunter was rapidly running out of space. His eyes were roaming desperately over the monster in search for a weak point, and as the abomination raised its arms for another downward blow, Hunter discharged a lightening bolt right into its exposed chest. The creature barely stumbled; the bolt had done next to no damage to the thick scales of its breastplate. Hunter stared crestfallen at the thin plume of smoke that curled from the monster's uninjured chest. This can't be happening!
Hunter had an urge to try the morpher again, but dismissed that idea almost as soon as it popped into his head. Something was jamming the morpher, and he was certain that it was Lothor-engineered. Hunter gritted his teeth at the thought of the evil ninja watching this entire spectacle right now from the safety of his bridge. In his mind he could just hear the gleeful laughter drifting through that ugly space contraption of his.
Roaring furiously, the dino-monster raised its paws once again. As if in slow-motion, Hunter watched the light reflect off the razor-sharp weapons as he felt the last seconds of his life tick by. Faces suddenly flashed before his eyes…Blake grinning, Cam smiling…
Hunter drew in a sharp breath and steeled himself for the pain of the death blow.
Suddenly there was movement above him, a flash of red on top of the wall, then a familiar voice. "HEY, FREAK!"
The creature's head whipped around at the sound, then shrieked in anger at the impact of Shane's sneakers from a double-legged flying kick. The Wind ninja bounced off the beast's head, landed smoothly on the hard-packed dirt floor a few feet away from Hunter and threw him a quick glance. "You all right?"
"Yeah," Hunter replied, never taking his eyes off the beast, but mentally breathing a sigh of relief at his team mate's last-second intervention. "Meet 'Butt-ugly T-Rex'."
"Not interested in meeting him. How do we beat him?"
Hunter shook his head grimly. "Haven't figured that part out yet. How do you beat something like that without weapons?"
The creature lashed out at them with a howl of blackest rage, and the two Rangers scrambled, ducking and leaping out of the way of the deadly talons.
This time, however, Hunter wasn't quick enough, and the beast's claws raked along his upper arm. White-hot pain flared up from the injured limb, and Hunter screamed involuntarily. He stumbled, clasping his hand over the wound and felt the warm slickness of blood seeping from the deep gash.
The monster glared at him with murderous intent, its blood-red eyes glowing like hot coals, and suddenly, even through the thick cloud of pain, Hunter saw the weak spot!
It was so obvious; he couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it much earlier.
He gritted his teeth and, ignoring the searing agony from his arm, raised both hands, took a precious second to aim and discharged two lightening bolts towards the creature's head.
They hit dead on, one bolt for each eye, and with a deafening screech of pain, the monster reared up, pawing at its eyes.
"Gotcha," Hunter growled. His arm was throbbing unmercifully, and with a grimace he clutched his bloody hand over it again.
He never knew whether his attention slipped from the pain of his injury or the momentary indulgence of glee from the successful hit, but he never saw the tail coming. He heard Shane yell something, but it was swallowed by the creature's enraged howls, and before he could react, the tail swept him off his feet. The next instant he was airborne, the stone wall coming towards him at the speed of light.
The impact was brutal. Hunter slammed into the wall with such force that he actually heard the sound of his ribs breaking like stalks of celery. Every ounce of air was knocked out of his lungs so that he had no breath left to even let out a cry of pain. He instinctively jerked his head back, but not far enough, and his temple connected with solid stone before he rebounded and dropped onto the ground.
The last thing he heard was the telltale metallic screeching of the metal door before unconsciousness claimed him once again, for the second time in as many hours.
Ninja Ops…
The sounds of Blake's boots resounded off the walls of Ninja Ops as the Navy Ranger tried to walk a pattern into the floor right behind Cam's computer console with his frantic pacing. Cam tried to shut out the insistent stomping while he hit keys on his keyboard in rapid and seemingly random sequence.
Behind Blake, Dustin and Tori sat on top of the low command table, shoulders slumped, faces dismal; they had arrived a few minutes ago after Cam had hailed them and told them about the incident at the skate ramp.
Blake lifted his head to see Tori put an arm around the Yellow Ranger, whose face had lost most of its golden tan. Dustin was worried to death about his best friend, and Blake could see Tori's mouth moving, mumbling words of encouragement. Judging from the miserable look on Dustin's face, though, it wasn't working.
Cam swiveled around in his chair, facing the dejected little group. "I have reprogrammed the computer to scan for Hunter and Shane's morpher signatures on all possible frequencies, but I've also set the scanning range for as broad as possible, so that process will take a while." The samurai's voice was clear and in control, but Blake could see the worry lines etched into Cam's face.
"How long?" he said tightly, chewing on his lower lip.
"A few hours at least."
Blake ran his hands through his hair with a frustrated expression. "But what do we do in the meantime?"
"There's nothing we can do, Blake." The green Ranger's voice had assumed a tone of finality, but Blake still shook his head vigorously. "No, there has to be something we can do. I can't just sit here…"
"Look, we are all exhausted. Let's try to get some rest, ok?" Cam's gaze was intent, willing Blake to take his advice.
From the table came Tori's voice. "We are staying here, too, so we can be ready when the scans reveal something."
It was not lost on Blake that she had said when instead of if, and Blake loved her all the more for her faith.
"Good idea." Cam nodded.
Ninja Ops' guest room, where the Bradleys had been staying for the past few months, suddenly felt stark and cold. Blake flung himself onto Hunter's bed and let his eyes roam around the small room. His brother's things were everywhere: shirts draped over a chair, his favorite pair of sneakers, the crimson Converses, thrown into a corner; even his scent was still in the pillow under Blake's head. All this obvious evidence of his brother's presence made his disappearance even more surreal, and Blake's throat constricted as a fresh wave of anguish and worry washed over him.
Hunter, wherever you are, just hang in there! We'll find you, bro. Somehow.
Blake's heart clenched like a fist around that nugget of hope. At first he didn't think he would even be able to close his eyes, but once he had stretched out on the bed, the strain from the events of the past few hours caught up with him quickly, and Blake drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
The dream…
'Blake…'
The voice seems to come from inside his head. No, not one voice. Two voices, speaking in perfect unison. So familiar…
'Blake!'
He opens his eyes, finds that the bed, the room, Ninja Ops, is gone. Startled, he scrambles to a sitting position, looks around. Hard-packed dirt on the ground, stone walls on either side of him. Murky darkness all around him, yet somehow he sees, somehow he knows he is in a tunnel. He shakes his head to clear it. A dream. Has to be a dream.
He rises, puts a hand on the stone wall. Cold, hard, and disturbingly real.
The voices again. He turns his head sharply, and his body follows the sounds entirely of its own volition. He cannot see where he is going, but instinctively he knows it's the right way. He is strangely calm and that surprises him, given the unreality of the situation. While he walks he tries to place the voices, but recognition hovers just out of reach. They are warm, soothing, almost mesmerizing. He senses no danger, neither from the voices nor from the dark surroundings. After a few more steps, a silvery light appears, small and faint, but growing larger as he gets closer. He doesn't know how, buthe knows it's the end of the tunnel. His destination.
He takes a few more steps,…and walks into a chamber. As soon as he enters, he knows exactly where he is. He had been here before, less than a year ago, under circumstances he doesn't care to remember right now. His eyes settle on the small stone altar, now devoid of the Gem of Souls it had held for so long before Lothor destroyed it.
But what am I doing inside the Sacred Mountain of Lost Ninjas?
The soft, silvery light seems to originate from behind the altar and when he looks at it, it suddenly starts to change, to grow and pulsate. He takes an involuntary step backwards, but cannot wrest his eyes away. A feeling of déjà vu is flooding through him, and he stands rooted to the spot as something begins to take shape within the light. A form, then two, distorted at first, then quickly becoming clearer. No, it can't be!
Wide-eyed, he suddenly finds himself face to face with the two people he had never expected to see again. Not since the last time he was here. Not really people, though…
"Mom, Dad…?" His voice shakes, barely louder than a croak, but his adoptive parents look down on him silently. Floating within the sphere of light, encapsulated in its ghostly luminescence, they hover motionless, and he is suddenly overcome with the urge to throw himself forward and into their comforting arms. But that would mean crashing into the stone wall behind them; they were only spirits, after all. Killed so many years ago…
He feels their gazes so intently, it's almost painful. His parents look exactly the way he remembers them from his first and last visit to this chamber. His mother's eyes are full of love for him, but she frowns, deep lines of worry in her beautiful face. And in his father's as well. He knows why they worry; he worries about him, too.
"Son, you know why we have called you to us," his father says, his ghostly voice echoing through the chamber.
He has so many questions for them, but the worry for Hunter overshadows all, and he nods. "Do you know where he is?" he asks.
"Lothor is holding them here, inside the Sacred Mountain of Lost Ninjas," his mother answers him, and he suppresses a shudder at the feelings her sweet voice rouse in him.
She fixes him with an unblinking gaze. "Blake, when Lothor destroyed the Gem of Souls, he also destroyed the mountain's most effective defense against the infiltrations of evil. Not long after that, Lothor was back. And he brought with him monsters from all parts of the galaxy. For months he experimented with breeding the ultimate evil. A few weeks ago he finally succeeded."
As he listens, the feeling of foreboding grows bigger and stronger within him, and he swallows heavily. "What is happening here?" But he is afraid he already knows.
His father chimes in. "There are ancient training arenas right in the center of the mountain, where ninjas have been training for generations. Lothor had been using these arenas to raise his abomination, and several days ago he deemed it ready to use it to set his ultimate plan in motion; to destroy all the Rangers."
"Lothor knows he cannot defeat you as a team, so his plan is to capture you all separately and set his creature loose upon you individually once he has brought you here," his mother finishes the gloomy explanation.
He feels dizzy all of a sudden, but manages to stay upright. "Hunter and Shane…"
"You must hurry, Blake," his father says urgently. "This creature is of such pure evil that words fail to describe it. When Lothor unleashes this beast, I'm afraid that neither Hunter nor his friend will stand a chance against it."
"And we are powerless to intervene," his mother adds. "It's up to you to rescue your brother."
"But how do I find them in there?" he cries.
"Once you have come to the Sacred Mountain of Lost Ninjas, we will guide you. But hurry! Time is running out…"
The light starts to dim, the voices become faint, and he wants to scream at them to stay, to tell him more, but suddenly he finds himself in utter darkness, alone, and desperately afraid.
Just a dream?...
"WAIT!"
With this word still on his lips, Blake jerked awake, blinking rapidly.
Ninja Ops, something soft beneath him – Hunter's bed. Blake sat up shakily. His heart was hammering so fast it felt like it was powered by a steam engine, and he ran a trembling hand across his face. That dream…so real!
In his mind he heard the voice of his mother once again. 'Time is running out...'
Her words were like a jolt of electricity and Blake shot from the bed, out of the room and into Ninja Ops' control room, where, heedless of his own advice to rest, Cam was still firmly perched in front of his computer console.
The samurai frowned when he saw the Navy Ranger bolt towards him. Blake came to a stop an inch in front of Cam's chair, urgency written all over his features. "Cam, the mountain, they're in the mountain, there's not much time…"
"Whoa, Blake, slow down," Cam held up his hand, watching the flustered Thunder ninja intently. "What are you trying to say?"
Blake took a deep breath, trying to arrange his thoughts, which were still spinning wildly, into a coherent report. "I just had this dream…I was inside the Sacred Mountain of Lost Ninjas, and suddenly my parents were there…" Cam noticed the pained expression that briefly flickered across Blake's face. "They told me that Lothor is holding Hunter and Shane there, because he is planning on using them as sort of test subjects for his newest monster…" Blake fixed Cam with a pleading gaze to believe him. "Cam, it was so real, more like a vision than a dream. This was no random message. I'm sure they are there!"
If this sounded crazy to Cam, the samurai didn't let it show. He simply nodded and wordlessly turned back towards his computer terminal, typing a few commands to call up the computer's search results. "According to this, the computer has already searched that area and found nothing."
Blake was not deterred. "But the dream…They have to be there!"
Cam looked thoughtful for a moment until his eyes suddenly widened. "Unless we've been scanning for the wrong thing all along," he mumbled and began to type with renewed urgency. Moments later, the Sacred Mountain again re-appeared on the screen.
"Let's see if this works," the technician said and pressed the big red button on the keyboard. After only a few seconds, two spots appeared on the screen; one bright red, the other dark red.
"Yes!" Cam pumped his fist in triumph, and Blake's face lit up like a Christmas tree.
"I don't know what you did, but that's them, right?" he cried.
The Green Ranger nodded and pointed towards the display. "Yes, and you were right; they are right in the center of the mountain."
Blake was already turning. "Let's go!"
But Cam held him back, his eyes glued to the screen. "Wait, there's a problem."
The Thunder ninja's brows furrowed. "What? What is it?"
Cam turned back to the terminal and hit a few more keys. "The reason why the computer didn't detect them during the first scan was because I have used their morpher's energy frequencies." The samurai gesticulated towards the screen where the outlines of the mountain were now bathed in a bluish hue. "But there seems to be some sort of dampening field surrounding the entire mountain. It wasn't until I switched the scans to match their bio-signatures instead when the computer finally came up with something."
Cam gazed at Blake. "That indicates that this dampening field is interfering with their morpher's energy connections to the main computer."
The Navy Ranger regarded Cam with a puzzled expression. "Meaning…?"
"Meaning that they cannot communicate with us, and whatever is inside the mountain, -because I'm pretty sure they are not alone in there, - they are facing it without their Ranger powers." The samurai looked worried.
"Even more reason to get them out fast," Blake said resolutely.
"Agreed, but first I have to make some modifications to our own morphers, otherwise there's no guarantee that the same thing won't happen to us once we're inside." Cam was already punching commands into his keyboard while he spoke.
"Can't you just short-circuit the dampening field?" Blake asked, but Cam shook his head.
"Just tried that, but it seems to be controlled from Lothor's ship, and that's out of reach for me."
Although he was itching to rush out, the Navy Ranger saw the logic in the samurai's reasoning. "So…how long for those modifications?" he sighed.
"I'm already on it. Shouldn't be long." Cam could almost feel the anxiety emanating from the younger Bradley, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Blake, I can't wait to get him back, either," he said quietly. The Navy Ranger was still the only one who knew about the relationship that had been developing between Hunter and Cam since the two Thunder Rangers had moved into Ninja Ops a few months ago.
"And Shane, too, of course," the Green Ranger added quickly.
Blake nodded, but the dismayed look on his face stayed. "I can't stand this waiting," he mumbled.
"I know. Me, neither." Cam was hitting keys on his keyboard in lightening-quick succession. "Why don't you get the Winds; by the time you all get back here, we should be ready to head out."
"All right." Grateful to have something to do, the Navy Ranger streaked out of Ninja Ops and into the forest where Dustin and Tori were working off their nervous energies by sparring with each other.
All three were back only a minute later, but Cam was ready. Blake had brought them up to date on the events, and it took Cam only a moment to re-program everyone's morphers. They streaked out of Ninja Ops and arrived at the foot of the Sacred Mountain of Lost Ninjas only a few heartbeats later.
TO BE CONTINUED…